Globalizing the culture wars : U. S. conservatives, African Churches, & homophobia

K. Kaoma

In this report by the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, PRA Project Director, exposes the U.S. Right's promotion of an agenda in Africa that aims to criminalize homosexuality and otherwise infringe upon the human rights of LGBT people while also mobilizing African clerics in U.S. culture war battles. Kaoma focuses for the part of the United States on "renewal" groups in The Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church USA, and Presbyterian Church USA; U.S. conservative evangelicals; and the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a neoconservative think tank that for decades has sought to undermine Protestant denominations' tradition of progressive social justice work. In Africa, Kaoma investigates ties U.S. conservatives have established with religious leaders in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya and the impact of homophobia exported from the United States to these Anglophone countries. While the American side of the story is known to LGBT activists and their allies witnessing struggles over LGBT clergy within Protestant denominations in the United States, what's been missing is the effect of the Right's proxy wars on Africa itself. Kaoma's report finally brings this larger, truly global picture into focus.